Regina sat like that for a few minutes and thought. Secretly she’d always wanted to rap but had always been too scared to attempt it. To her it was an art form that she’d studied since she was a kid. Making notebooks on each of her favorite artists, copying down lyrics, then studying them, memorizing them, making and notes and comments on them like she was studying for a test. But actually attempt to rap, no, that she’d never tried. Trying it and finding out that she couldn’t do it would have hurt too much. Now she knew she could do it and she had the two biggest names in her book, Eminem and Dr. Dre, telling her that she could do better than rap. She was being offered a record contract, something that had only ever occurred in her wildest dreams. Scared. That’s what Eminem had called her. Scared. That’s exactly what she was.

What could she do? She’d been attending college for the last five years, part time, on and off. She was one more semester away before she had her bachelors. But what could a degree in English really get her? A deal, a real deal that might have something to offer later down the line, was being thrown at her. She looked at the idea realistically also. If she was half as good as Eminem, which she didn’t believe she was, she would still make enough to live off of.

Besides, this was her dream. A dream that she’d never put much stake in, but one she’d always imagined as a kid. Now she’d have a chance to go after that, the world was being laid at her feet. She had to take this chance and go for it. At least if nothing became of it she wouldn’t feel bitter that she’d been offered this and never tried it.

Standing up she straightened her hair, took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle.

“You got a lawyer around here to explain all the legal jargon to me?”

“Don’t forget! Tomorrow night, my place, six o’clock!” Regina called to the rest of the guys as they all spilled out the door. They all waved and nodded to her, calling their good byes as everyone went their separate ways. Eminem and Regina climbed into his car and went back to his hotel so Regina could get her things.

Once back in the hotel suite Regina found her purse which in Eminem’s haste to get out of there that morning, or afternoon really, since they had slept till one, had left on the couch with her book still sitting on the coffee table.

“I’ll just get my clothes and then I’ll get out of here,” Regina said heading towards the bedroom. Em stood by the couch, hemming and hawing about asking her to stay. He was fighting an inner battle trying to figure out it she’d want to stay and have dinner with him or not. Before he could figure out if he wanted to ask her or not she’d come out of the bedroom with her things and was stuffing them into her bag.

“Look, you don’t have to drive me back, I’m just gonna grab a cab,” she said throwing her purse over her shoulder.

“Uh, don’t have to run off or anything, I mean, you want to stay for dinner?” he asked awkwardly. He regretted saying it as soon as he said it. She wouldn’t want to stay with him. She’d been very clear about that.

“Okay, sure, that’d be nice,” he was broken out of his stupor as she walked back to the couch and dropped her bag beside it.

“Uh hello, you in there?” she asked waving a hand in front of his face.

“What? Oh yeah, sorry about that. I’ll order up some room service, what do you want?” he asked going over to the phone.

“Oh anything will be fine,” Regina replied flopping on the couch and putting her feet up on the table.

“No really, they’ll get anything I ask for,” he asked holding his hand over the mouthpiece.

“Em, anything will be fine, I’m not picky, as long as it’s food, I don’t care,” Regina laughed.

“All right, hi yeah, can I get two plates of spaghetti and meatballs, Mountain Dew all right to drink?” he asked holding the phone away again. Regina put a thumbs up as she grabbed the remote and turned on the television.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he hung up the phone and went back to the couch and sat down beside Regina, watching her flip through the channels.

“Ew soap opera network, double ew Lifetime, plastic surgery, all right, puke fest time, you find something,” Regina said throwing the remote in his lap.

“All right, baseball?”

“Boring,” Regina replied.

“Britney Spears, Crossroads?”

“Do you even have to ask?” she laughed.

“Okay, let me see,” he said flipping a few more channels before stopping on one. After a commercial they both sat up and said at the same time, “The Jerk!”

“You like this movie?” Em asked looking over at her.

“Of course, it’s a Steve Martin classic! Just as good as Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” she replied smiling.

“What’s your favorite part in the movie?” he asked grinning.

“You shouldn’t name that dog hero, you should name that dog shit head!” they both mimed at the same time and burst out laughing.

“Oh god I love that part!” he said laughing. The doors of the elevator popped open and a bellhop rolled in a cart.

“Thanks man, just leave it right there,” Em said getting up off the couch and digging in his pocket for a tip. He paid the man and he left.

“All right, dig in,” Em said bringing Regina her plate.

“Hey, thanks,” she said smiling and taking her food from him. He sat down beside her again.

“Mm, good choice,” Regina nodded after a few bites.

“Yeah,” he nodded as well.

“God dammit I still can’t believe what happened today!” she after a minute.

“What, with the deal?” he asked.

“Yeah!” she said as if this were obvious.

“Oh,” he laughed, “yeah, I guess it would be.”

“I mean, if two days ago, you told me I’d be sitting here, with you, after signing a record contract, I’d say you were insane,” she laughed.

“All right, I want you to be, finally honest with me,” Em said between chewing, he finally swallowed and finished, “did you ever rap before yesterday?”

“No, please, I thought I was lucky that I could even lip sync to your stuff,” she replied laughing.

“Really though,” he said looking over at her.

“Really, I never even sang along to stuff in the car or on the radio. Just couldn’t,” she replied shaking her head.

“But why not?”

“Cause. I loved rap music, have ever since I was about seven. Got to the point where I kinda regarded it as a high art.” Regina replied looking back at the TV screen.

“Yeah, so why didn’t you pursue it?” he asked turning to look at her. She sensed him looking at her so she grabbed the remote and shut of the television.

“Cause I couldn’t. Didn’t want to try. I loved it so much that I didn’t want to know if I couldn’t do it. That scared the crap out of me.”

“You didn’t even try it?” he asked.

“Na, like I said. If I did, and found out I couldn’t, I don’t think I could handle it.” She replied.

“You like rap music that much?” he asked.

“Yeah. You know those kids who had like superman and wonder woman as their heroes, well mine were Jay Z, Missy Elliot, Dre, you know, all the biggies.” Regina laughed.

“Why’d it have such an effect on you though?”

“In my house, my father reigned as king, and well we never really saw eye to eye, cause he spent most of his time beating me with his belt. I just remember, sitting in my closet, after one of his ‘corrections’ as he liked to call it, and just putting on my headphones. He couldn’t touch me in that zone. It’s like their words kinda reached out to me, and always told me, always reminded me that I’d be out of there one day.” Regina replied nonchalantly.

“I know what you mean,” he replied.

“I mean, I didn’t grow up in like poverty stricken house or anything, I mean we had a nice house, our mother made sure we got an allowance, of course that’s how I got my CD’s. But he always made it hell.” Regina replied.

“Anyways, moving on.” She said getting up and returning her plate to the cart.

“Yeah,” he nodded returning his plate to the cart as well. When they sat back down on the couch they were closer than before.

“Hey, I just wanted to say thank you,” she said turning to look at him again.

“What for today? You did that, and Bizarre was the one really that gave the stuff to Dre,” he replied nervously. Now that the TV was off there was nothing to distract the conversation.

“Well, yeah that, but really for the other day, at the diner. No one’s ever stood up for me before. I really appreciate it,” she said touching his arm.

“Oh, it was nothing,” he said, trying to ignore her hand on his arm.

“No really, it meant a lot to me,” she said again.

“Like I said, you don’t deserve to be treated that way,” he replied, avoiding her gaze.

“All the same, hey, I got a surprise for you, wait here, keep your eyes closed and don’t open them until I come back,” she said getting up.

“What, wait a minute, where are you going?” he asked.

“Don’t worry about that, just close your eyes, I’ll be right back.”